The present invention relates to a furniture arrangement, and in particular to a furniture arrangement transformable in order to provide different functionality.
Different types of transformable furniture have been available on the market for some time. One main objective for such furniture is to provide a desired functionality when needed, and by rearranging different parts of the furniture another configuration is possible, for example directed to another need of the owner/consumer, or for space-saving purpose.
One example of a transformable furniture is the Murphy bed. Such bed is normally mounted to the wall by means of a hinge at the head end, and by raising the foot end the bed will pivot towards the wall. By securing the bed to the wall, the bed will no longer occupy the floor area, and for this reason Murphy beds are very popular especially in compact living apartments etc.
There are certain drawbacks of the Murphy bed described above; firstly, proper installation requires high stability of the supporting wall. Secondly, the installation is rather complex and particular strong connectors must be used in order to ensure safe use of the bed. Thirdly, the hinge connection between the bed and the wall is critical, since it must be able to support heavy persons sitting at the foot end. Fourthly, as the full length of the bed is folded out from the wall they do not fit in all areas.
In view of the above drawbacks there is need for other solutions which can provide the desired versatility of transformable furniture in a safe manner, however requiring less critical components and installation procedures.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new type of furniture arrangement which is improved over prior art and which eliminates or at least mitigates the drawbacks discussed above. More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a stand-alone furniture arrangement that is usable as more than one piece of furniture. These objects are achieved by the technique set forth in the appended independent claims with preferred embodiments defined in the dependent claims related thereto.
In a first aspect, a stand-alone furniture arrangement comprising a primary piece of furniture and a secondary piece of furniture is presented. The primary piece of furniture and the secondary piece of furniture fixedly are arranged in an L-shape. The primary piece of furniture comprises a hinge which allows the primary piece of furniture to transform from a first configuration to a second configuration. The second configuration corresponds to a bed having an essentially horizontal sleeping surface with a longitudinal extension corresponding to the intended head-to-toe sleeping orientation of a user of the bed. Further to this, the hinge extends in parallel with the longitudinal extension of the second configuration.
In one variant, the primary piece of furniture is transformable between the first and second configurations by pivoting a transforming portion of the primary piece of furniture about the hinge. This is beneficial as it allows for a convenient method of transforming the primary piece of furniture and different configurations may be provided at opposite sides of the transforming portion.
In one variant, the primary piece of furniture comprises a rectangular frame, and wherein at least a part of the transforming portion is arranged within said frame when the primary piece of furniture is configured in the first configuration. This is beneficial as a height of the primary piece of furniture is the same regardless of which configuration it is configured as.
In one variant, the first configuration corresponds to a shelf, a sofa, or a wall panel.
In one variant, the secondary piece of furniture has a height being less than the height of the primary piece of furniture. This is beneficial as it allows for increased freedom in interior decorating etc.
In one variant, the height of the secondary piece of furniture is less than 50% of the height of the primary piece of furniture. This is beneficial as it allows for increased freedom in interior decorating etc.
In one variant, the secondary piece of furniture a shelf, a cabinet, or a sofa.
In one variant, the secondary piece of furniture is configured to reversibly transform from a first configuration to a second configuration. This is beneficial as it provides one additional piece of furniture in the furniture arrangement and thereby further uses for the furniture arrangement.
In one variant, the first configuration of the secondary piece of furniture corresponds to a sofa, and the second configuration of the secondary piece of furniture corresponds to a bench.
In one variant, the first configuration of the secondary piece of furniture corresponds to a cabinet, and the second configuration of the secondary piece of furniture corresponds to a table.
In one variant, the primary piece of furniture is configured to selectively transform from the first configuration to the second configuration or an intermediate configuration. This is beneficial as it provides one additional piece of furniture in the furniture arrangement and thereby further uses for the furniture arrangement.
In one variant, the first configuration of the primary piece of furniture corresponds to a sofa, and the intermediate configuration of the primary piece of furniture corresponds to a bench.
In one variant, the first configuration of the primary piece of furniture corresponds to a shelf, and the intermediate configuration of the primary piece of furniture corresponds to a table.
In one variant, the longitudinal extension of the second configuration of the primary piece of furniture is adjacent to an extension of the secondary piece of furniture. This is beneficial as the bed folds into the L-shape and the total area required for the furniture arrangement is reduced.
In one variant, the furniture arrangement, further comprises an L-shaped bottom frame. The primary piece of furniture and the secondary piece of furniture are fixedly arranged on the L-shaped bottom frame. This is beneficial as the L-shaped bottom frame may be used as a platform when producing furniture arrangements with different configurations of their primary and secondary pieces of furniture.
Embodiments of the invention will be described in the following; references being made to the appended diagrammatical drawings which illustrate non-limiting examples of how the inventive concept can be reduced into practice.
Hereinafter, certain embodiments will be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention, such as it is defined in the appended claims, to those skilled in the art.
The term “coupled” is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. Two or more items that are “coupled” may be integral with each other. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless this disclosure explicitly requires otherwise. The terms “substantially,” “approximately,” and “about” are defined as largely, but not necessarily wholly what is specified, as understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art. The terms “comprise” (and any form of comprise, such as “comprises” and “comprising”), “have” (and any form of have, such as “has” and “having”), “include” (and any form of include, such as “includes” and “including”) and “contain” (and any form of contain, such as “contains” and “containing”) are open-ended linking verbs. As a result, a method that “comprises,” “has,” “includes” or “contains” one or more steps possesses those one or more steps, but is not limited to possessing only those one or more steps.
A furniture arrangement 100 that addresses at least some of the drawbacks discussed above is illustrated in
Forming the furniture arrangement 100 in an L-shape is beneficial as it provides a stable construction that may be arranged freely within a room without being restricted by walls or ceilings. In addition, the stand-alone furniture arrangement 100 with an L-shape does not need to be anchored to a wall, floor or ceiling, but is sufficiently stable on its own. The L-shape makes the furniture arrangement 100 usable also as room divider where the furniture arrangement 100 may function as a dividing, separating wall.
In the
The pieces of furniture 110, 120 are preferably different pieces of furniture 110, 120 and at least one of the pieces of furniture 110, 120 may transform from a first configuration 110A, 120A to a second configuration 110B, 120B (see
In should be emphasized that, within the scope of the present disclosure, the term transform is to mean a bi-directional transformation. Transforming from the first configuration 110A, 120A to the second configuration 110B, 120B is to imply also the reverse transformation, i.e. from the second configuration 110B, 120B to the first configuration 110A, 120A. The configurations 110A, 120A, 110n, 120B may be considered different articles of furniture, or different uses of the furniture arrangement 100.
In one preferred embodiment of the stand-alone furniture arrangement 100, the primary piece of furniture 110A is transformable into a second configuration 110B in the form of a bed 110B. This is illustrated in the cross sectional side view of the primary piece of furniture 110 of
As illustrated in
When the transforming portion 111 is at a first positon, the transforming portion 111 is substantially vertical, and the primary piece of furniture 110 is configured as the first configuration 110A. When the transforming portion 111 is at a second positon, the transforming portion 111 is substantially horizontal, i.e. parallel to the secondary longitudinal extension L120, and the primary piece of furniture 110 is configured as the second configuration 110B.
In order to further increase stability of the stand-alone furniture arrangement 100, especially in when the primary piece of furniture 110 is configured in the first configuration 110A, i.e. when the bed 110B is in an upright, hidden, position, the bed 110B may be configured with a longitudinal extension parallel to the hinge 115, i.e. along the primary longitudinal extension L110, corresponding to the intended head-to-toe sleeping orientation of a user of the stand-alone furniture arrangement 100. That is to say, the bed 110B will be arranged such that a person sleeping in the bed, will be arranged perpendicularly to the secondary longitudinal extension L120. In such configuration the center of mass of the primary piece of furniture 110, when occupied by a person lying on the bed 110B, will be closer to the hinge 115 (and thus provide less load on the hinge 115) compared to if the intended head-to-toe sleeping orientation of the user would be parallel to the secondary longitudinal extension L120.
In the embodiment of the primary piece of furniture 110 illustrated in
In order to keep the height of the primary piece of furniture 110 constant, the primary piece of furniture 110 may comprise a rectangular frame 112, see
With reference to
The holding element 113 may be any suitable element e.g. a wire, an extendible rod, a sliding mechanism etc. connected to the frame 112 and the transforming portion 111. When the primary piece of furniture 110 is configured as the first configuration 110A, the holding element 113 may be hidden from view by the transforming portion 111 inside the frame 112.
The holding element 113 configured as illustrated in
Further, as indicated in
In another non-liming embodiment of the furniture arrangement 100 according to the present invention illustrated in
Alternatively, or additionally, a backrest support 120A1 of the sofa 120A may be configured to support the backrest 120A3 of the sofa 120A when the secondary piece of furniture 120 is configured in the first configuration 120A, i.e. the sofa 120A. When the secondary piece of furniture 120 is configured in the second configuration 120B, i.e. the bench 120B, the backrest support 120A1 may be configured to unfold across the bench parallel to the primary longitudinal extension Luo to form the sitting surface 120B1 of the bench 120B.
Using the backrest 120A3 when transforming the sofa 120A into the bench 120B is beneficial as it provides storage for the backrest 120A3. Further to this, a seated height of the bench 120B will be higher than a seated height of the sofa 120A and the sitting section 120A3 is a substantially flat horizontal area which provides a more suitable configuration for e.g. dining etc. compared to the sofa 120A.
In
As illustrated in
The stand-alone furniture arrangement 100 of
In
Similarly to the cabinet 110A2 of the embodiment of
The primary piece of furniture 110 is, as illustrated in
Albeit not specifically shown, it should be emphasized that the first configuration 110A, 120A may comprise more than one shelf 110A1 effectively forming a book case or similar. In some embodiments the shelf(s) 110A1 may be hinged such that it is always kept at a horizontal orientation to prevent items from falling of the shelf 110A1 when the primary piece of furniture 110 is transformed from the first configuration 110A into the second configuration 110B and vice versa.
The first configuration 110A may also be equipped with a folding down table (not shown). In addition, it may be covered or partly covered with art work or the like providing an aesthetic appearance of the first configuration 110A.
The embodiments illustrated and described herein are generally configured with the secondary piece of furniture 120 having a height that is less than a height of the primary piece of furniture 110. This is not necessary, but beneficial as it allows for a more spacious decoration and freedom in placing the furniture arrangement as the secondary piece of furniture 120 may be low enough such that it does not block windows etc. With this said, in a preferred embodiment, the height of the secondary piece of furniture 120 is less than 50% of the height of the primary piece of furniture 110.
It should further be mentioned as the combinations presented of the first, second and intermediate configurations 110A, 120A, 110B, 120B, 130A, 130B of the primary piece of furniture 110 and the secondary piece of furniture 120 may be freely combined with each other within the scope of the present invention. Although the secondary piece of furniture 120 has not been presented with an intermediate configuration, any intermediate configuration 110C presented herein may be used as part of the secondary piece of furniture 120.
Modifications and other variants of the described embodiments will come to mind to one skilled in the art having benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing description and associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the embodiments are not limited to the specific example embodiments described in this disclosure and that modifications and other variants are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2151388-2 | Nov 2021 | SE | national |
This application claims priority to International Patent Application No. PCT/SE2022/051063 filed on Nov. 14, 2022, and Swedish Patent Application No. SE 2151388-2, filed on Nov. 15, 2021, the contents of both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/SE2022/051063 | 11/14/2022 | WO |